By Dele Ogbodo
The Federal Government, through the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to see their service as an opportunity to safeguard, stabilise and sustain government programmes, activities and projects designed to bring about development, as well as secure the wellbeing of Nigerians.
She admonished them “to resist attempts of being used as tools by those who do not mean well for the Service nor the nation.”
She stated this during a media parley with Chief Executives and Editors-in-Chief as part of activities marking the 2024 Civil Service Week celebration on Wednesday at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
Yemi-Esan, thanked members of the media for honouring her invitation meant to interact and have a robust discussion with her and the transformative Federal Permanent Secretaries, in order to move the Service and by extension the nation forward.
According to her, the interaction will also be a veritable opportunity to appreciate the unwavering support of the Media in achieving the mandates of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), as well as to keep Nigerians aware of some modest ongoing government reforms.
Reiterating the continental theme for this year’s Civil Service Week, “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality and Relevant Learning in Africa,” she hinted that the Service has undergone several reforms, which are repositioning it for optimum performance.
These reforms have proactively recognised and avoided the pitfalls of the previous ones, hence the successes being witnessed, she added.
The HoSF further spoke on the successes recorded with the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP25), which was developed following extensive stakeholder engagements. It was approved by the Federal Executive Council on December 15, 2021, FCSSIP25 and officially launched in June, 2022.
According to her, the leadership of the Nigerian workforce has driven the Plan towards evolving a crop of skilled, motivated, disciplined, innovative, and performance and merit-based Civil Servants. This was possible with a robust Change Management and the inculcation of a culture of Accountability, Meritocracy, Professionalism, Loyalty and Efficiency (AMPLE), she emphasised.
Highlighting the six (6) Pillars of the FCSSIP25: Capability Building and Talent Management, Performance Management System, Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) – Human Resource, Innovation, Digitalisation of Content Services and Enhancing Value Proposition for Civil Servants – Staff Welfare, the HoSF revealed that they have been aligned to drive the implementation of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu–led Administration’s eight priority programmes in the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda.’
She reels out the successes recorded by the Office, during her stewardship, in the implementation of FCSSIP25 such as; coordination of all training programmes of MDAs, where progress report on those approved are properly structured and piloted by the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), adding that over 16,000 officers have been trained at the core Ministry level. On Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P), the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Public Leaders Programme; the Service have been able to groom and deployed to various MDAs, a crop of about 224 LEAD-P Officers out of 500 future leaders expected by 2025; 8,905
Civil Servants have also been trained under the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P), which consists of Basic, Intermediate and Advanced modules; another 2,676 have been trained under the blended e-learning initiative, in collaboration with the private sector on the AIG Public Leaders Programme, which was facilitated by the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG), University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Others include the Institutionalisation and Implementation of a Performance Management System (PMS) in the Service; correction of the existing anomalies in the management of HR Records; promotion of Service innovation; digitalisation of content Services; and focus on the welfare of Civil Servants, in which she eulogized President Bola Tinubu for demonstrating both the will and passion for improving the welfare of the workforce through the N35,000 provisional wage award for all treasury-paid Federal Government workers for six months and ongoing efforts to review the national minimum wage.
Also, towards enhancing the value proposition of Civil Servants, the Office had instituted a Reward and Recognition Scheme (R&RS), Service wide; an Endowment Fund of N500,000 for each recipient of the Presidential Public Service Merit Award best performing Civil Servants from the MDAs facilitated by a private sector partner – the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation; Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme; Provision of Group Life Assurance (GLA) cover for Federal Government Employees; provision of affordable housing and loans, at single-digit interest rate, through the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme and the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board, respectively.
A major reference point is the FISH Housing Estate in Gwagwalada, which has been completed, allocated and commissioned, in record time. “We are also working towards the delivery of more housing units.” Yemi-Esan said.
Other staff welfare milestones include the establishment of an Employee Wellness Centre, where health seminars, physical and mental health counselling and checkups are conducted; review of the Public Service Rules (PSRs) and the launch of the revised PSRs, improvement on work environment and infrastructure development through the procurement and installation of workstations in the various departments to enhance staff productivity, deployment of a 500-kilowatt Solar Hybrid System for alternative electric power; partnership with Galaxy Backbone Ltd for the upgrading of the Local Area Network (LAN) in Ministries and the enforcement of the use of official email addresses for official communication, in line with global best practices.
Earlier, in her Welcome Address, the Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office, OHCSF, Dr. Deborah Odoh, appreciated the Media for their continued collaboration and invited them to use the opportunity of the meeting to suggest ways to better the Service, in the overall interest of the nation.
During the interactive session, the Media, commended the HoSF on some visibly remarkable and tremendous transformations witnessed on Civil Servants’ attitudes as opposed to the past years. They pledged to continue doing their best for the interest of the Service.
While questions were entertained on salary harmonisation, cost saved by disengaging ghost-workers, corruption and its management in the Civil Service, recruitment and IPPIS enrolment. Comments and commendations were mostly centred on Culture Change, Digitalisation, as well as the speedy rate of infrastructural upgrade during the tenure of Yemi-Esan.
The Director, Communications, Mal. Mohammed Ahmed Abdullahi thanked the Members of the Press for the cooperation the Office has been receiving from them. He however, solicited for their continued unbiased reportage and goodwill.
Present at the occasion were Transformative Permanent Secretaries from various Ministries and extra-ministerial Departments, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein and numerous Directors.